| Lucien Van Impe |
Article Index for Lucien |
Website Links For Lucien |
Information AboutLucien Van Impe |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT LUCIEN VAN IMPE | |
| belgian cyclists | |
| belgian tour de france stage winners | |
| tour de france winners | |
| 1946 births | |
| living people | |
|
Van Impe credits the start of his career to Spaniard Federico Bahamontes , himself a famed climber nicknamed ''the eagle of Toledo '' and former Tour de France winner; Bahamontes used his influence to get Van Impe a contract as a professional. Van Impe won the Polka Dot Jersey as " King Of The Mountains " six times in the Tour, a record shared with Federico Bahamontes; Richard Virenque broke the record with a seventh victory in 2004 . Van Impe has criticized Virenque for being an opportunistic rider rather than the best climber; he also said to have refrained from breaking Bahamontes' record himself out of reverence to Bahamontes. As a rider, Van Impe joined the latter won, but in the Pyrenees Van Impe secured his victory. In 1977 he started as one of the favorites in the Tour, but failed to take a lead in the mountain stages. He waited until the very last mountain stage, to Alpe d'Huez, but forgot to eat timely, causing him to lose his lead. In that tour, he was also caught by one of the accompanying cars and fell, another cause for his defeat to French champion, Bernard Thévenet. After three lesser years, seemingly over his height, Van Impe made a strong comeback in 1981 with a second place in the final classification and a first place in the mountain classification. Afterwards he still won the mountain classification in the Giro D'Italia twice. Single-day races were not his specialty, therefore it was a surprise that he won the Belgian road cycling championship in 1983 . MOST IMPORTANT SUCCESSES AS PROFESSIONAL CYCLIST 1971
1972
1973
1975
1976
1977
1979
1981
1982
1983
|
|
|